Social media had a huge impact on the people of 2017, and will continue affecting people for years to come. Every time I got on Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn, someone was posting about not being understood for who they are. Going abroad has allowed me to realize just how important it really is to understand someone for who they are instead of the stereotype that people portray them of being. To begin with, I went to study in The Hague, The Netherlands. On the opening day for the exchange program all one hundred and fifty exchange students, including three University of Louisville students which were the only United States citizens in the room, watched what the school thought was a great introduction video to break the ice. The instructor first began the video saying, “I know all of you have seen this video before, but we can watch it again.” The video consisted of a foreign television host making a fool out of President Donald Trump. I felt absolutely humiliated, because before I didn’t have the chance to speak to anyone, and everyone made their stereotype about The United States. It was only after everyone in the room was laughing at the obscene footage that the instructor asked if any Americans were in the room. Two others and I raised our hands in shame and humiliation. This story is not to convince anyone not to participate in study abroad, because it was an experience of a lifetime. This allowed me to break a stereotype to every single person I had met. Over the four-and-a-half-month period I was in Europe, I had the opportunity to prove that I was not a stereotype. “You can’t be American. You aren’t rude. You aren’t fat. You aren’t something.”  For the entire beginning of the trip, I had to prove to people who I wasn’t before they could get a chance to meet who I was. I had to break down cultural barrier that should have never been built in the first place, and needless to say, I loved it. I got to show my new friends from all over the world what made me a United States citizen, and I stopped letting stereotypes make a name for me. As much as I felt like a victim of being misunderstood, I was also culturally uneducated. I have heard many stereotypes of countries, and as much as I knew they couldn’t all be true, it did give me a bias. One night I vividly remember was my friends and I cornering all parts of the globe sat around and began to allow each other to explain where the stereotypes come from. By the end of the night, we were all laughing at the common belief of people that new absolutely nothing about the culture of our countries. Now, I can finally say I am culturally taught, but I could never be able to assume anything about anyone based on where they are from.